


"Just...stop"

by Nightimer



Series: Tantrum [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Harry Being Harry, Non-Consensual Spanking, Spanking, Team as Family, Temper Tantrums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23286499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightimer/pseuds/Nightimer
Summary: A rewrite of episode 4x14 of the flash where Harry looses his temper in front of Cecile. Except in this story, Joe just happens to walk in right at the tail end of Harry's tantrum and takes Harry in hand. A direct sequel to my other Flash story "Tantrum"
Series: Tantrum [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008216
Comments: 25
Kudos: 26





	"Just...stop"

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, this is a direct sequel to my previous story "Tantrum" and while it's not really necessary to read that one to enjoy this one, it would help to establish why Harry reacts the way he does. Since it's a rewrite of an episode, some of the dialogue was taken directly from the show and I take absolutely no credit for it what's so ever. Also thank you to Abakala for planting this seed of a story in my brain. Hope it meets with your approval. Enjoy.

Cecile sat back against the headboard of their bed and looked at the mental activity dampener helmet that Harry had built for her with trepidation. The thing was awfully heavy and she had serious reservations about sleeping in it.

"Cecile, what's that?" Joe questioned as he stood in the bathroom doorway, toothbrush paused halfway to his mouth in surprised curiosity. He had never seen anything like it and was a little confused as to why it was currently in their bedroom.

Cecile sighed as she dropped the heavy helmet on top of the bed spread.

"Harry built it for me," she explained as he came over, picking up the contraption in his hand, turning it this way and that, testing it's heft.

"I know I'm going to regret asking this but what is it?" Joe asked her as he tried to think of a possible purpose for the ugly thing and why Cecile would need it.

"Harry calls it a mental activity dampener," she began as she took the device from him and placed it in her lap, once more reminded of it's weight.

"And why would he build you something like this?" he prompted her, sitting down on the bed beside her.

Cecile sighed as she pushed the heavy thing aside, deciding to not beat around the bush.

"I can hear your dreams Joe and they are very, very loud. It's keeping me awake at night and I needed something to help drown out that cacophony and when I bumped into Harry at Jitters, I mentioned my problem and he said he could build something that would help me," she explained, watching as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"You can…hear my dreams?" he asked worriedly and she couldn’t help smiling at his concern.

"Don't worry Joe. I can only hear, not see," she elaborated softly and that seemed to ease some of the tension that had crept into his shoulders.

"Oh, that's good I guess," Joe breathed as he took Cecile's hand in his own, squeezing gently. "Is it safe?" he added, eyeing the metallic monstrosity with renewed concern. Cecile was pregnant after all.

"Joe, it's Harry," she said in way of explanation.

Joe raised an eyebrow at her.

"He may be a little bit of a mad scientist but he would never give me anything that might hurt me," she said and Joe nodded his agreement at that.

"Mad is an appropriate word," he added and Cecile couldn't help hearing some very interesting thoughts coming from him regarding Harry. One in particular made her gasp and raise a hand to cover her mouth in surprise.

"Oh my God," she began, a smile threatening to break through her mask of seriousness. "Tell me you didn't."

"What?" Joe looked at her in confusion before realizing that she must have heard some of his thoughts. He hoped it wasn't the one he was thinking of.

"Yes, yes it is," Cecile confirmed out loud and Joe looked heavenward, sighing.

"You actually _spanked_ Harry?" she asked him and he couldn't help joining in on her humor at the whole situation.

"Well yes, yes I did," he replied as he stared down into her amused expression.

"You have to tell me _all_ about it…"

**************************************************************************************

Harry looked up from the bolt he was ratcheting into place to glance at the nondescript paper bag Cecile had just plopped down on his workbench.

"D. A. Cecile Horton," he said in way of greeting, turning back to his work. "You look tired," he added, his quick mind already coming to the conclusion that there was a high probability she was here to complain about his device.

"Yeah, that's cause I am tired," she began, frustration starting to come through. "This thing, it doesn't work," she gestured defeatedly with her hands.

"It works because I built it," Harry explained testily as he continued to yank on the tool in his hand before his need to correct her forced him to turn around and gesture with it. "And this thing, as you so ineloquently put it, happens to be a mental activity dampener that _is_ ten pounds of cerebellum proof anti-telepathy somani steel. _Thank_ you, very much," he finished as he turned back towards his current project she had interrupted with this foolishness.

"Yeah, that's the problem, it is--it's _ten_ _pounds_ of that stuff" she emphasized while bringing up her hands to help illustrate her point.

"So?" he asked her, turning slightly to look irritatedly at her.

Seeing that Harry wasn't getting the point she was trying to make Cecile decided a visual aid might be more helpful.

"Oh, gee…Okay," she said as she reached into the paper bag and lifted out the dampener.

Harry watched her struggle with it silently, before turning from his work and giving her his full attention, seeing as how she wasn't going to let this drop anytime soon. 

Cecile placed the bulky helmet on her head with a final sigh of victory and stood before Harry with arms out in a "see what I mean?" stance. 

Harry looked at her and shrugged, hands spread in confusion.

"And?" he asked, shaking his head slightly for her to get to the point.

Cecile stared at him for a second in disbelief before bringing her own hands up to point at the monstrosity on top of her head.

"I can't… _sleep_ like this Harry," she explained in desperation. "Does this look comfortable to you?" Surely now he would see she had a valid point.

Harry sighed, feeling his frustration taking over and unable to hold back the outburst he could feel building up inside him.

"I guess I was…while I was pulling state of the art technology out of my ass to help _you_ with your problem, I forgot to make things comfortable for you," he berated her, the volume of his voice rising with each word.

"Are you kidding me with comfortable?" He asked her incredulously. "You know what else I forgot?" he added obnoxiously. 

"I guess I also forgot while I was coming up with a generational breakthrough…," he paused to toss his tool across the room, causing Cecile to yelp in surprise at the unexpected reaction.

"…in vibrational brainwave theory," another tool followed the same trajectory of the first. 

"…that I was working for the Princess and the Pea!" Harry picked up yet another tool and was raising his arm to lob it across the room when Cecile pointed a stern finger at him.

"Stop It!" she all but ordered him, her voice full of fed up authority. " _Stop!_ "

Unexpectedly, Harry did so, regarding this new demeaner in her and trying to decide if it would be better to listen to her or to go ahead and continue to relocate all his tools to a pile on the other side of the room.

"Put it down," Cecile demanded, pointing at the wrench in his hand.

Harry looked at the tool in question, trying to decide what he should do.

"Harry?" Cecile said calmly as she stared up at him. 

He turned his head slightly from his contemplation of the tool to meet her eyes.

"Put it down," she warned finally and Harry was just about to lower the wrench when Joe chose that exact moment to walk through the work room door.

All three froze; Joe, mid step as he took in the scene, Cecile, half turned towards him with one hand trying to steady the clunky dampener, Harry, arm still raised.

Harry felt a cold chill ripple down his spine as he looked directly into Joe's face. He knew what this must look like, with him holding a heavy wrench up like he was about to strike Cecile, even though he would _never do that_ , and poor pregnant Cecile yelling at him to stop. 

He immediately lowered his arm and uncharacteristically numb fingers dropped the tool on the floor. The sound of it clanging to the ground broke whatever spell that had held the other's in place and Joe surged forward towards them, god like retribution written in every line of his face.

"Turn around and put your hands flat on the desk!" he barked at the dark haired man, raising a hand to point at him, then to the desk Harry was stood next to. The authority in his voice couldn't have been more absolute if he had pointed a gun at Harry's head.

Harry's eyes widened behind his glasses and while he normally would balk at any type of command aimed his way, he immediately knew that he was going to have to obey Joe's order if he wanted to live to see another day. He quickly took an unconscious step back and turned sideways to them, facing the desk, and bent over slightly to place his palms flat on the desk as Joe had instructed. The position left him vulnerable and he couldn't help glancing back at Joe to see what he was going to do next.

"Joe," he began but the other man quickly cut him off with a raised hand.

"Shut it!" Joe ordered sternly and Harry turned his face to the front again and bowed his head to look down at the tabletop between his hands, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his jaw. He shook his head once in irritation at himself. He sincerely hoped Joe would allow him to explain before he killed him.

"Joe wait!" Cecile interrupted as she reached out a small hand to grasp Joe's left arm, the simple touch enough to make him stop and turn to her.

"This isn't what it looks like," she started as she struggled to take the mental dampener off her head with one hand. 

"Oh I know this isn't, otherwise I would have already shot him," Joe stated as he reached down and lifted the clunky device off her head for her and placed it down a little harder on the table then necessary. "I heard him yelling from all the way down the hall," he added as he turned to glare at the scientist who was refusing to look at him. "So tell me what this is all about."

"I was just…" Harry started to explain but Joe cut him off once more with a stern finger.

"Not you," he warned the other man before turning towards Cecile, leveling his finger at her instead. "You."

Cecile could tell Joe was angry as she glanced back and forth between the two men.

"To tell you the truth Joe, I'm not entirely sure," she began as she heard Harry sigh in dejected frustration.

"Try," Joe said simply and Cecile took a deep breath before doing her best to recount what had happened when she had came into the lab and had explained to Harry that the dampener was too heavy and she was unable to sleep in it.

"And then he just started yelling and throwing things," she said in confusion, generally surprised at his reaction to her reasonable concern over his design. She couldn't help picking up on the stray thought Harry was having and she stopped to look at the bent over man.

"Wait, is this normal behavior for you?" She questioned him and Harry turned his head to glance at her.

"Sometimes behavior," he explained somewhat reluctantly, shifting his weight.

"Behavior that we have already talked about," Joe told him ominously and Harry couldn't help feeling his stomach drop at that. He remembered all to well the last time he and Joe had, had a talk about the scientist's proclivity towards letting his emotions get the better of him and throw what could only be described as tantrums. 

He turned his attention to Joe and he just _knew_ that he wasn't going to leave this room without having his backside slapped. This was _exactly_ the type of thing that had earned him a spanking from Joe the first time around. 

"And since we have already talked about it, then we can just go ahead and skip to the next step," Joe proclaimed matter of factually as he walked towards the bent over man.

"Now wait a second Joe," Harry rasped out, attempting to stand back up as self preservation started to take over.

"Down," was all Joe said but the tone in his voice promised so much more. Hearing it, Harry reluctantly bent over again and placed both hands flat against the workbench, bowing his head resignedly, keeping his gaze locked onto the tabletop.

He knew Cecile was questioning Joe but couldn't make out the words due to the blood rushing through his ears. He felt Joe come up beside his left side, felt him turn slightly. Then he felt an arm come down over his back and wrap around his middle, pulling him close to Joe's side. He felt Joe tap him repeated on the front of his hip until Harry got the hint the other man wanted him to take a couple steps back from the workbench. He did so reluctantly as this caused him to bend over more in order to keep his hands in position on the table. The arm around his middle tightened, locking him into place.

Joe could feel Harry's rapid heartbeat against his side and knew that the other man absolutely hated this. He didn't much like it either but he had warned the scientist and Harry had gone right ahead and done the exact same thing Joe had warned him not to. He had brought this on himself and Joe was going to make damn sure he remembered this the next time he decided to act out.

Harry waited in mortified silence for the first swat to fall. He had briefly entertained the idea of fighting Joe over this but he really had learned his lesson the first time around that no matter how much he struggled, Joe was perfectly capable of forcing this on him.

When it finally did fall, Harry had to bite down on a gasp of surprise. Joe had hit him dead center on his backside and with such force that Harry had been jerked slightly forward by it. He let out a slow breath as he rode out the initial sting, clenching, then unclenching his hands. Unfortunately Joe didn't give him much time to recover and began swatting him at a pretty rapid pace, causing Harry to involuntarily hold his breath and clench his jaw in order to not make a sound.

Over and over Joe's hard hand made contact with the taught seat of his jeans and Harry was finding it more and more difficult to remain stoic. He knew Cecile was still there, a witness to his humiliation and he didn't want to add to it by letting her know how much a spanking was affecting him. He kept his head down and tried to keep his body still as the force of the swats kept jarring him, causing an errant lock of his messy hair to curl down over his forehead, swinging in time with Joe's swats.

Joe focused several stinging swats to Harry's backside where buttock met thigh, knowing that area was more sensitive and also would support most of the lanky man's wait when he sat down. Joe was determined for this to be a lasting reminder for Harry. He was going to make sure the other man felt this every time he sat down for at least the rest of the day.

Harry had been doing extremely well in not reacting to the spanking until Joe had gotten fed up with his lack of reaction and had landed a hard slap to the back of Harry's upper thigh.

"Ow!" Harry yelped out despite himself, shifting his weight to the uninjured leg so he could move the one Joe had smacked potentially out of harms way. Of course he couldn't and Joe smacked it again several times in a row, encouraged by the reaction he had received.

"Damn it." Harry hissed as he shifted his weight again as Joe reached over and swatted his other thigh several times. He could feel his hands itching to fly back and cover himself and stomped his left leg in frustration.

Joe rewarded his slight rebellion with even more heavy slaps to his thighs and Harry grunted in pain and brought his right hand up off the workbench in an unconscious attempt to stop Joe from smacking him again.

Joe felt the shift in Harry's body and quickly gave the smaller man a tight jerk around his middle, causing Harry to momentarily loose his balance and force him to place his hand back down in order to maintain it and not fall against Joe.

"Keep your hands flat on the desk and don't move them until I say you can, you got me?" Joe told him as he swatted him hard, causing Harry to grunt in pain.

"I'm finding that request a little difficult detective seeing as how you are beating my ass!" Harry angrily called over his shoulder, giving up on being stoic now that the pain had reached a decidedly uncomfortable level in his rear and every new swat was compounding the heat exponentially.

"This is your own fault and you know it so don't give me any lip because your feeling sorry for yourself," Joe admonished as he continued to slap the moving backside before him, causing the restless shifting to increase. It was a definite improvement over the impassiveness Harry had been exhibiting before and Joe was thinking they were finally getting somewhere.

"Okay, okay, fine," Harry eventually ground out between grunts of pain. "Trust me, you've made your point perfectly clear. I've had enough," he added as he tried to meet the other man's eyes over his shoulder, unintentionally catching sight of Cecile in the process. Harry could feel the burn of embarrassment in his cheeks and quickly looked back down.

"I thought you had had enough last time, yet here we are," Joe explained as he spanked Harry hard on both cheeks, causing the other man to lift up onto his toes with the force of it.

"Ow!" Harry cried out, slapping a hand on the workbench in hopes of focusing his brain on the pain in his hand rather then the one in his rear. 

"Joe?" Cecile said softly from behind him and both men paused in their silent battle of wills to turn and look at her. Joe stalled his hand mid swat, and slowly brought it down to rest on Harry's lower back.

"I think he's had enough," she explained nervously as her gaze switched between both men. "After all, Harry had been trying to help me."

"I understand that Cecile but that does not excuse his behavior," Joe stated firmly, casting a quick glance down at the man he had pinned to his side before giving her his full attention once more. 

"Oh, no…I totally get that and I'm not disagreeing that Harry needed…" she gestured towards the two of them with one hand, "…that, but I also think that he understands he messed up and he won't do anything like that in the future again, right Harry?" Cecile threw the metaphorical ball to him and thankfully Harry grabbed it with both hands.

"Yes, that's right," he answered, recognizing the out she was giving him and surprisingly grateful for her intervention. 

"I'm sorry D.A. Cecile Horton, for loosing my temper like that," he added and was surprised that he actually meant it. 

Cecile smiled at him as she heard that stray thought and turned back to Joe who was watching her closely and nodded once at him, indicating that Harry was actually being sincere.

That was all the conformation Joe needed and he turned his focus back to Harry.

"Alright, I guess you have had enough," he started as he loosened his tight hold around Harry's middle and stepped back to allow the other man to stand up. Harry did so slowly, wincing slightly as the material of his jeans rubbed against his sore backside.

Joe leveled a finger directly under the other man's nose before he could pull away and sulk.

"Do _not_ , let me catch you acting like that again Harry, do you understand me?" Joe scolded him firmly and Harry raised a pacifying hand up.

"I will do my best detective to never act that way in your presence again," Harry replied and Joe raised an eyebrow at the implication that Harry might still act that way out of Joe's eyesight, but decided to let it pass. Harry had enough experience now to know what will happen in the future if he loses his temper like that again.

"Good," Joe said as he lowered his finger to pat Harry on his shoulder once before turning back to Cecile.

"Well If you're you done here Cecile, I'd like to take you out to lunch. It's actually why I came here in the first place."

"Uh yeah, I think I'm good. Lunch sounds wonderful," she responded with a smile as Joe held out his arm for her to take.

"Thanks for trying Harry," she threw over her shoulder at the scientist who was standing there uncomfortably with arms crossed, waiting for them to leave so he could mope in peace.

"Of course D.A. Cecile Horton," Harry responded automatically, waving a dismissive hand in her direction and turning back to the project he had been working on originally. He glanced around for an appropriate tool before he remembered he had banished most of them to the other side of the room.

"Oh and Harry?" he heard Joe call out at the entrance and he quickly looked over to him, slightly apprehensively.

"Yes detective?" he asked quietly.

"Dinner at our house tonight. And do not be late," he explained, making sure that Harry understood the invitation wasn't a request, it was an order.

Harry ducked his head and nodded.

"Yes, of course, I'll be there," he responded dutifully, watching until they both turned the corner before sneaking a hand behind him to rub at the sting in his backside.

"Ow," he whispered quietly to himself. Joe really had a hard hand. His gaze wandered over to the discarded mental activity dampener, the object that had instigated this whole mess, and reached out to pick it up in one hand.

"Oaf, it's _heavy_ …" 


End file.
